Machine for grinding axle housings or the like



Oct. 9, 1962 R. DE JULIO ETAL 3,057,124

@ MACHINE FOR GRINDING AXLE HOUSINGS OR THE? LIKE Filed Aug. 10, 1959 2Sheets-Sheet l BY Z? WW3 9m;

Oct. 9, 1962 R. DE JULIO ETAL 3,057,124

MACHINE FOR GRINDING AXLE HOUSINGS OR THE LIKE Filed Aug. 10, 1959 2Sheets-Sheet 2 United States atent 3,057,124 MACHINE FGR GRINDING AXLEHOUSINGS OR THE LIKE Richard De Julio, 1064 Sylvan Ave., Bridgeport,Conn., and Raymond Plunske, 627 Tunxis Hill Road, Fairfield,

Filed Aug. 10, 1959, Ser. No. 832,741 2 Claims. (Q1. 51-241) Thisinvention relates to grinding machinery, and particularly to suchmachinery which is capable of grinding axle housings without requiringthe removal of the axle housing being ground from the vehicle of whichit forms a part.

In most land vehicles, particularly heavy ones, such as commercialtrucks, a rear axle and differential gear housing is included havingtubular ends which are in bearing and sealing relationship with usualdrive shafts and/or usual wheels. In usage it is found that wear occurson the portions of the tubular ends of the housing which support theusual seals, and this results in the seals becoming ineffective, whichpermits lubricant to leak from within the housing out thereof into thevicinity of the braking structure, thereby resulting in both a loss oflubricant for the differential gears within the housing and a loss inbraking ability. Under these circumstances it is conventional practiceto disconnect the rear axle and differential housing from the vehicle,send it to a machine shop to be rebuilt, and then to reinstall it on thevehicle. The amount of labor involved in this conventional procedure isapproximately thirty-two man hours, in addition to the labor involved inthe machine shop. An alternative to rebuilding the housing, of course,is to replace it with a new housing; however, this is extremelyexpensive and normally considered too costly.

It is an object of the invention to provide an improved grinding machinewhich is capable of grinding the tubular ends of rear axle anddifferential housings while the housings are still attached to thevehicle.

The above and other objects and further details of that which we believeto be novel and our invention will be clear from the followingdescription and claims taken with the accoo-mpanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary elevational view, with portions broken away andshown in section for clarity of a representative known Wheel and axleassembly;

FIG. 2 is an elevational view, with portions broken away and shown insection, of the FIG. 1 assembly after the wheel and drive shaft thereofhave been removed and a grinding machine which incorporates the instantinvention has been operatively associated with the rear axle anddifferential housing;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken in a plane that passesaxially through the tubular end of a rear axle and differential housingafter it has been ground and a sleeve applied thereto;

FIG. 4 is an end elevational view looking in the direction of the arrowin FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 3 but additionally showing a portion ofa wheel and a seal operatively associated therewith;

FIG. 6 is an elevational view of a side of a grinding machine whichincorporates the instant invention showing portions of the housing whichit is grinding in dot-dash lines, and

FIG. 7 is an end elevational view looking in the direction of the arrowin FIG. 6.

In FIG. 1 there is illustrated a representative, known wheel and axleassembly. It should be understood that the precise construction of theWheel and axle components is not critical as regards our invention, justso long as the rear axle and differential housing includes a cylindricalice surface which supports a seal and which is subject to wear in use.The rear axle and differential housing is generally designated byreference numeral 10 and comprises a central, spherical, hollow,enlarged, differential gear housing portion 12 and a pair of coaxial,oppositely extending, tubular ends 14; the entire housing 10 is notillustrated in FIG. 1, there being only one tubular end 14 shown.However, it should be understood that the housing 10 includes anothertubular end of similar construction to the one illustrated, and thatdescription of the illustrated tubular end and its associated elementsequally applies to the unillustrated tubular end.

Within the tubular end 14 there is mounted a cylindrical bearing sleeve16 which has a portion 18 that projects axially beyond the extremity oftubular end 14. Rotatably mounted within the bearing sleeve 16 is anelongated, cylindrical, drive shaft 20 having its inner end of knownconstruction for cooperating with the differential gears in the housingportion 12. An end 22 of the drive shaft 20 extends axially beyond thebearing sleeve portion 18 and has a wheel mounting flange 24 formed atits extremity. Flange 24 is disk-like and may be rigidly and permanentlyconnected to the drive shaft 20, as by being welded at 26.

A wheel, the hub 28 which is illustrated, is rigidly connected to thedrive shaft flange 24 so as to be drivingly connected thereto and torotate therewith in unison, as by having bolts 30 pass throughappropriate openings (unnumbered) in the drive shaft flange and securelyseat in threaded bores 32 formed in the wheel hub. The wheel hub 28 hasa substantial, axially extending, cylindrical, internal bearing surface34, formed by a passage that extends centrally therethrough, which hasrotary bearing contact with the cylindrical, external, bearing surface36 of the bearing sleeve 16. The inner a axial end of the wheel hub 28has a plain, cylindrical counterbore 38 formed therein whichcommunicates with the passage that forms the bearing surface 34.Counterbore 38 forms an inwardly facing, cylindrical surface 40 and afiat, radially extending shoulder 42 on the wheel hub 28.

The housing tubular end 14 has a step 44 formed at its extremity which,in turn, forms an external, cylindrical, radially outwardly facingsurface 46 and a flat, radially extending shoulder 48. When fullyassembled, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the axial extremity of the housingtubular end 14 is disposed within the counterbore 38 of the wheel hub28, and these parts cooperate to define an annular cavity in which ismounted an annular seal 50. Seal 50 may be of any suitable known typeand is particularly designed to prevent leakage of lubricants.

When fully assembled, the drive shaft 20 is arranged to be rotatablydriven through the differential gears in the housing portion 12 and to,in turn, rotatably drive the wheel hub 28 and the remainder of thewheel. During such operation, the external cylindrical surface 52 of thedrive shaft 20 is in rotary bearing contact with the internalcylindrical bearing surface 54 of the bearing sleeve 16, and theinternal cylindrical bearing surface 34 of the wheel is in rotarybearing contact with the external cylindrical bearing surface 36 of thebearing sleeve 16. Adjacent portions of the wheel hub 28 and the housingtubular end 14 are also in bearing contact. However, the primaryoperational aspect of these parts is to provide a cavity for the seal 50which effectively prevents the escape of lubricant which exists withinthe housing 10 and which lubricates the various bearing contactingsurfaces discussed above. With regard to completing the sealing of theassembly in FIG. 1, it will be understood that it is a simple matter toprovide an effective lubricant seal between the drive shaft flange 24and the portion of the wheel hub 28 to which it is connected.

In use it has been found that the seal 50 is inclined to rotate with thewheel hub 28, and therefore, that wear occurs on the externalcylindrical surface 46 of the housing tubular end 14. As was pointed outabove in the introduction to this specification, when a suificientamount of this wear occurs, the eifectiveness of seal 50 is impaired andlubricant tends to leak past the seal 50; this leakage results in bothloss of lubricating effectiveness because of the diminution of theamount of lubricant and the loss of braking ability because the leakinglubricant is prone to seep onto the brake drum. The usual procedure,prior to our invention, to correct this condition was to either rebuildor replace the housing 10, and in either event an inordinate amount oflabor was involved in order to disconnect the housing from the vehicleand replace it with a repaired or a new housmg.

With our invention, the wheel and axle assembly may be restored to itsoriginal condition of sealing effectiveness by grinding the externalcylindrical surface 46 of the housing tubular end 14 and then applying asleeve onto the ground external cylindrical surface 46. In doing this,the outer diameter of the sleeve 56 is selected to be the same as theoriginal outer diameter of the external cylindrical surface 46 and theouter diameter of the the ground cylindrical surface 466 is ground so asto snugly receive the sleeve 56. After the sleeve 56 is mounted on thehousing tubular end 14, the seal 50, or a replacement therefor, thewheel and the drive shaft are reassociated with the housing 10, asillustrated in FIG. 5. At this time, the original sealing eifectivenessof the seal 50 has been restored.

Our improved grinding machine generally comprises means for mounting theentire machine operatively relative to the housing to be ground, arotatable grinding tool disposed to contact the cylindrical portion ofthe housing to be ground, a powered means for the rotating the grindingtool, carrier means which is rigidly supported by the mounting means andwhich, in turn, selectively adjustably supports the grinding tool andpowered means relative to the housing, and selectively manually operablemeans for rotating the entire machine about the housing.

The mounting means (see FIGS. 6 and 7) may conveniently take the form ofa clamp-type split sleeve which comprises two semi-cylindrical sections58, each of which has two pairs of spaced, oppositely extending tabs 60.The tabs 60 are disposed in such a manner that four pairs of associatedmounting tabs are formed, each pair of which is adapted to receive abolt 62, so as to render the sections 58 manually radially adjustabletoward and away from each other. In order to effect this arrangement andto mount the bolts 62, one tab 60 of each pair of mounting tabs includesa plain opening 64 and the other tab thereof includes a threaded opening66. Integrally formed with the sections 58 is a hand wheel 68 whichcomprises a circular rim that is adapted to be gripped manually by auser, and a plurality of integrally formed, radial spokes 70 which areintegrally connected to the sections 58. The hand wheel 68 comprises aselectively manually operable means for rotating itself, the sections 58and the remainder of the machine which is supported by the sections 58.

Rigidly secured to the upper sections 58 (with reference to FIGS. 6 and7) is an elongated, plate member 72. The plate member 72 extendsgenerally horizontally and is longitudinally centrally thereof rigidlyand permanently secured to the upper section 58, as by the welds 74. Atone end of the plate member 72, said plate member is pivotally connectedby the hinge 76 to a second plate member 78. The free end 80 of theplate member 78 is of reduced width and is bent so as to beapproximately parallel to the plate member 72. An oblong slot 82 isformed in the free end 80. The free end 84 of the plate member 72 is ofreduced width and includes an oblong slot 86. The free end 84 supports aslightly downwardly extending small plate 88, as by having a screw 96pass through an end of the plate 88 and be anchored in a threadedopening 92 in the free end 84. An elongated rod 94, which is threaded atboth of its ends 96, 98, is operatively associated with the free ends ofthe plate members. The threaded end 98 passes through the slot 86 and isthreaded into a pair of associated nuts 100 Which are disposed adjacentthe free end of the plate 88. The threaded end 96 passes through theslot 82 and threadedly receives an adjustable feed nut 102.concentrically disposed about the central portion of the rod 94 incontact with and beween the free ends of the plate members is a strongcompression spring 104. The plate members 72 and 78 and the rod 94,spring 104 and their associated parts comprise the carrier means for thegrinding tool and its powered means.

The grinding tool comprises a disk-like grinding wheel 166 made of anappropriate abrasive material and appropriately shielded by a generallysemi-circular shield 10 8, and the powered means comprises an electricmotor 112. The grinding wheel 106 is rigidly mounted on the drive shaft110 of the electric motor 112 for joint rotation therewith. The precisemountings of the grinding Wheel and the shield 103, and the preciseconstruction of the motor 112 is not critical to our invention. Themotor 112 is exemplary of a powered means which supports and drivinglyrotates the grinding wheel 106. The motor 112 is rigidly secured to theplate member 78, as by having a plurality of mounting feet 114 bolted tothe plate 78 by nut and bolt assemblies 116 or other equivalent securingmeans. It will, therefore, be understood that the powered means, in theform of electric motor 112, and the grinding tool, in the form ofgrinding wheel 16-6, are both carried by the plate member 78.

The grinding wheel 1196 is mounted by the carrier means for selectiveadjustment radially relative to the work, i.e. the housing. Suchadjustment is attained by manually turning the feed nut 16 2 eitherclockwise or counter-clockwise, depending upon the radial direction ofadjustment of the grinding wheel desired. By reference to FIG. 7 it willbe observed that the piate members 72 and 78 are hinged to each other atadjacent ends by the hinge 76 and generally define a V, and that thefree ends 81 and 84 of these plate members are spaced apart by the rod94, the spring 104 and their associated parts which cooperate to form anadjusting mechanism. The arrangement of the adjusting mechanism and thestrength of the spring 104 are such that the spring constantly biasesthe free ends 86 84 away from each other. The actual distance the freeends are spread by the spring 164 is determined by the positions of theuppermost nut 1% on the threaded rod end 98 and the feed nut 102 on thethreaded rod end 96. In other words, the spring 164 tends to spread thefree ends 80, 84 to the maximum limit permitted by the positions of theupper nut 19% and the feed nut 102. In order to close the free ends 80,84, i.e. re duce the distance they are spread apart, the feed nut 1192is rotated in a direction to move on the rod threaded end 96 toward thethreaded end With reference to FIGS. 6 and 7, closing the free ends willresult in both the electric motor 112 and grinding wheel 1% being movedgenerally vertically downwardly. Turning of the feed nut 1 02 in theopposite direction results in its movement in the opposite direction andspreading of the free ends by the spring 104; such action results inmovement of the electric motor 112 and grinding wheel 106 generallyvertically upwardly. Therefore, it will be understood that the carriermeans permits the selective manual adjusting of the vertical position ofthe grinding wheel 166.

When it is desired to grind a worn external cylindrical surface of ahousing tubular end, such as the surface 46 in FIGS. 1 and 2, the wheelhub 28 and its wheel, the seal 50 and the drive shaft 2%) are removedfrom the hous-. ing 16. This leaves the housing 16 and the bearingsleeve 16 remaining, and as is shown in FIGS. 2, 6 and 7, our improvedgrinding machine is operationally associated with the housing andbearing sleeve 16 to grind the surface 46. This operative association iseffected by mounting the split sleeve sections 58 about the projectingend 18 of the bearing sleeve, as by separating them radially and slidingthem on the projecting end, adjusting the entire machine axially untilthe grinding Wheel 1106 is disposed in the step 44, and then tighteningthe sections 58. After tightening, the sections 58 are mounted by thebolts 62 so as to have a fit on the bearing sleeve end 18 which isfairly tight but yet which permits rotation of the sleeve sections 58relative to the bearing sleeve end 18, by the exertion of a reasonableamount of manual rotary force (which can conveniently be appliedselectively by the user grasping the hand wheel 68 and turning it).

The manual turning of the hand wheel 68 is performed while the grindingwheel 1% is drivingly rotated by the electric motor 112 which isenergized during a grinding operation. Turning of the hand wheel 68results in grinding the cylindrical surface 46. The precise amount ofthe material that forms cylindrical surface 46 which is ground off isdetermined by the user adjusting the feed nut 102 successively duringthe grinding operation to thereby move the grinding Wheel 1106 radiallyinwardly relative to the work. In practice it has been found that it isnecessary to grind approximately one-eighth of an inch off of thecylindrical surface 46 to form surface 466. When this is accomplished,the cylindrical surface 46 has been reduced to the ground surface 46Gshown in FIGS. 3-5, and the sleeve 56 is then forced on the surface 466.The sleeve is dimensioned so that it tightly fits thereon, and has anexternal diameter which is substantially the same as the originalexternal diameter of the cylindrical surface 46. The drive shaft 20,wheel hub 28 and its wheel, and the seal 50 are then remounted on thehousing 10 and bearing sleeve 16 into their FIG. 5 disposition, whereinthe sealing effectiveness of the assembly has been restored.

In practice it has been found that with our improved grinding machine itis possible to perform the necessary corrective work on a rear axle anddifferential housing having a worn external cylindrical seal seatingsurface in approximately three man hours, compared with the heretoforerequired thirty-two hours, approximately. The economy produced by ourinvention in the reduction of man hours required to effect repair shouldbe apparent. However, just as important as the direct reduction in labortime is the reduction in time that the vehicle which is being repairedis incapacitated. The real importance of this will be fully understoodwhen it is realized that these vehicles usually are trucks, and that itis important to maintain such commercial vehicles in operating conditionthe maximum amount of time.

As will be evident from the foregoing description, certain aspects ofour invention are not limited to the particular details of constructionof the examples illustrated, and we contemplate that various and othermodifications and applications will occur to those skilled in the art.It is, therefore, our intention that the appended claims shall coversuch modifications and applications as do not depart from the truespirit and scope of our invention.

What we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of theUnited States is:

1. A machine for grinding a cylindrical surface on an an axle housing orthe like while still mounted on a vehicle comprising: a clamp-like splitsleeve for operatively mounting the machine relative to the work; saidsplit sleeve being mounted for selective rotation relative to and aboutan axis which is coaxial with the work; a hand wheel rigidly secured tosaid split sleeve for selectively manually rotating said split sleeve;an elongated first member longitudinally centrally rigidly secured tosaid split sleeve and extending generally horizontally; an elongatedsecond member pivotally secured at one of its ends to an end of saidfirst member; a rotatable grinding tool arranged to operatively engagethe periphery of the work; powered means for rotating said grindingtool; said grinding tool and said powered means supported by said secondmember, and means connecting the free ends of said first and secondmembers in such a manner that they are selectively adjustable so as toclose or separate and thereby cause movement of said grinding toolradially relative to said work.

2. A machine for grinding a cylindrical surface on an axle housing orthe like while still mounted on a vehicle comprising: means foroperatively mounting said machine relative to the work to be ground;said mounting means being mounted for selective rotation relative to andabout an axis which is coaxial with the work, a rotatable grinding toolarranged to operatively engage the periphery of the work; powered meansfor rotating said grinding tool; carrier means for supporting saidgrinding tool and said powered means; said carrier means being supportedby said mounting means and selectively adjustable to adjust the positionof said grinding tool radially relative to the work, and means forselectively rotating said mounting means about its axis whereby saidgrinding tool is moved angularly relative to the axis of the work anddescribes a surface of revolution about said axis; said carirer meanscomprising an elongated first member which is rigidly secured to saidmounting means, an elongated second member which is pivotally secured tosaid first member and which cooperates therewith to form a V, andmechanism for selectively adjusting the position of said second memberrelative to said first member by causing pivoting therebetween, and saidsecond member carrying said grinding tool and said powered means,whereby selective adjustment of said second member results in movementof said grinding tool radially relatively to the work and thereby setsthe position of said grinding tool for operation; said mechanismcomprising an elongated adjusting member that is operatively associatedwith the free ends of said first and second members so as to beselectively utilized to cause separation or closing of said free endsand thereby adjust the position of the second member relative to thefirst member, said elongated adjusting member being threaded at bothends and having one of its ends anchored to the free end of one of saidmembers which forms a V and a portion of its other end extending throughan opening in the free end of the other of said members, a compressionspring that is disposed about said adjusting member and is in biasingseparating contact with both of said free ends, and an adjusting nutthat is threadedly mounted on said portion of the other end of saidthreaded member and arranged for axial movement relative thereto toselectively either manually overcome the bias of said spring and causeclosing of said free ends or permit said spring to expand and causeseparation of said free ends, depending upon the direction of axialmovement of said adjusting nut.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,465,599 McDiarmio i Mar. 29, 194-9 2,822,650 Barrett Feb. 11, 19582,869,293 Howard Jan. 20, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 327,951 Germany Oct. 19,1920 856,761 France Aug. 7, 1940

